Dhamaal

'Dhamaal' is a mad, zany, silly but truly hilarious comedy film, that hasn't lost its touch even after nearly a decade since its release. I have seen this cult-classic many times & the film only gets funnier each time I re-watch it.

'Dhamaal' Synopsis: Four good-for-nothing companions & a corrupt cop embark on a journey to find a hidden treasure in Goa.

Heavily inspired by the all-time hit It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, 'Dhamaal' offers genuine laughs & tickles your funny bone all through. The characters & their journey as one, is definitely silly, but the sequences are so hilarious, that you are on the floor laughing! The gags, one after the other, are so funnily written, that its impossible not to laugh.

Bunty Rathod's Screenplay borrows heavily from the above-mentioned film, but it works entirely. A special mention for the crackling dialogue. Indra Kumar's Direction is good. He deserves kudos for not letting the pace drop at any given time. Cinematography & Editing are fair. Music by Adnan Sami is excellent.

'Dhamaal' works because of its terrific casting. Arshad Warsi, Riteish Deshmukh, Aashish Chaudhary & Jaaved Jaffrey are a riot! Their on-screen chemistry as well as their comic timing, is masterful. Jaffrey, especially, is top-notch. Sanjay Dutt is his usual self. Asrani brings the house down. He's another topper! Vijay Raaz, Suhasini Mulay, Sanjay Mishra, Manoj Pahwa & The Late/Great Vinay Apte are superb in bit roles.

On the whole, Wanna laugh-out-loud? Watch 'Dhamaal'. Its pure fun!

Dhamaal is an amazing and very funny story of four ordinary university dropouts and unemployed men formed their own group of con artists, carrying out theft and other illegal activities to get money. It's truly crazy and a laughing riot. With Director Indra Kumar weaving in new characters, unexpected plots and twists and turns, making it truly come ducal and putting a smile on the faces of the audience although some parts including the plot of the film are based on Rat Race, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and Mr. Bean (the British TV Series and it's feature film in 1997). However, the ending of the film where the 6 men arrive at a Help Orphan Children Organization charity, the comedy is drained out but Director Kumar manages to refill the gaps with comedy when Kabir is interrogated by his boss again and the end song and dance as the credits roll. Watch this if you are feeling lonely, bored or down. As the name suggests, the film does do it's best to make you laugh. It did truly tickle my funny bone and drew a smile on me several times. Basically, this is what a comedy/drama film is meant to be! Arshad, Aashish, Ritesh and Javed truly shine as these four lovable and funny idiots with Sanjay Dutt and Asrani doing a spectacular performance, playing tough and strict but still funny men.

Dhamaal is an entertaining movie. However, one can't shake off the fact that the movies LIFTS scenes and story lines from AROUND 5-6 Hollywood MOVIES, right from the first scene.

First scene is a rip-off of Johnny English, the third scene is copied from one of Mr.Bean's episodes. The whole damn storyline is EXACTLY IDENTICAL to 'Its a Mad Mad World' and 'Rat Race'. Later one, the movie lifts the bridge scene from 'Road Trip', the tiger roar scene is from a movie called Without A Paddle, and the whole soap gun scene is from 'Small Time Crooks'. On many occasions, it is also inspired by Starsky and Hutch.

UPDATE - Just watched 'Dude, Wheres my car?' and the pizza scene is copied directly from there.

However, the second half is where we see some originality, and ironically, the most original scenes are the most entertaining. The movie goes for a clichéd ending, however, which is a downer.

THE GOOD

• Great performances from the cast, especially Arshad Warsi, Ritesh, and Jaffrey.

• Some very entertaining original parts, especially in the second half.

THE BAD

• You won't have much fun if you have watched the above-mentioned movies.

• Some jokes, like the airplane one and the cliffhanging one, are stretched to a point where they are not funny anymore.

• Not so great music.

• Disappointing ending.

Overall, Dhamaal is a decent entertainer, but stumbles badly on originality, as the copied jokes have been done much better in the original movies.

The movie has really come out as a nice surprise. I watched it expecting it to be very stupid and rubbish comedy like 'Dhol' or 'Tom. Dick and Harry'. I even was not having any intention of watching this movie, as I know what to expect from such movies. My roommate bought this movie and then I watched it with him. And we both like it. In fact we were both rofling while watching and saying, "Kya Bakwaas Chal Raha Hain".

We were involved so much that only at the last scene we realized that the movie theme is copied from rat race. I again watched the movie after one month back at my home.

Yes, the movie is full of stupid unrealistic scenarios and characters. The movie is also copied from not one but multiple Hollywood films. But the touch that they have given from Indian audience and the decent acting from lead characters made this movie worth watching. Even though all the jokes are very old age, due to the way they are presented and the way they occur we want to laugh at them.

When the movie has many characters normally we see that character building itself takes a lot of time and then each character did not get enough scope on screen. But fortunately in this movie each one gets its share time to develop and present themselves. Due to this there is restriction on scope of each character and hence the actors doing those do not have any problems performing them. That is why even without any big names behind (except Sanjay Dutt) the movie has done some good at box office.

The movie is flows with constant pace. Nowhere we find it going slow (except for the plane scene may be) or going fast. Also absence of songs I will treat as a positive point.

The other important aspect is not having any female actor. In todays Bollywood era, where an item song is a must in a movie doing such a daring is admirable.

This is the kind of you will like to watch and forget, but if you get another chance you will watch it again. At least I will.

Since a great cinematic action comedy named (It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World) was made in (1963) the world had gone real mad about it.

There is almost a version every decade. American different treatments like (Scavenger Hunt) in (1979), (Million Dollar Mystery) in (1987), an Egyptian one (Maganeen ala El-Tareek) in (1991), an American remake (Rat Race) in (2001), then – in the same decade – why not an Indian one too (Dhamaal – 2007).

(Dhamaal) is simply an explicit remake of (Rat Race – 2001) yet with slight touches from the original (Mad..) and even slighter Indian touches as well!

It's a nice comedy. So colorful but so painful in the same time since it assures the insolvency of the Indian cinema with countless stolen scripts yearly and mainly from the American cinema (I don't believe that "Paritosh Painter" is the writer of Dhamaal's story as the credits said !).

Sanjay Dutt looked lovable in this. In fact the whole cast looked the same. But the movie itself can be that if only you didn't watch its American original movies first.

It's a crisis of not too many new ideas, hitting the entire world including the American cinema by the way. You can feel it with the more commercial production of many cinemas.

..Though, I'm just asking: when will it be for the American cinema to remake Indian movies ?! And I'm not blaming the Americans if you know what I mean!